The most appreciated 20 minutes of my day!

As many of you know, mom has been working her tail off the past couple weeks trying to get year end complete. Our schedule has been altered a bit as I have been picking up the kids most evenings so that she can get a few more things done before wrapping up for the day.

Just to fill you in, our normal arrangement for the past couple years has been that I drop the kids off at school in the morning and Kelly would pick them up in the evening. She always has a few choice words for their demeanor after picking them up but I have not really had the opportunity to appreciate what that experience was like until now. I would liken it to having two starving leaches latch onto you and thoroughly try and suck what little life you have left in you after a hard days work. It's a tough role and I have to give mom credit for not making a bigger deal about it.

Tonight however, I have triumphed. They are both quietly sitting on the couch enjoying a nutritious hot dog and enjoying a politically incorret Looney Tunes episide. I am such a good parent...sitting down and writing this quick blurb has been the most appreciated 20 minutes of this beautiful day.

Normally a Man of Many Words...

Riding up to school this morning, James was asking all kinds of questions about how old people were.

James: How old is Grandpa Jim?
Dad: 63

James: How old is Uncle Mark?
Dad: 32

James: You are 33 years old. Your alot older than I am.
Dad: Yes, I am a lot older than you are.

James: Does that mean you will die before me some day?
Dad: Ah…um…most likely that will happen some day big guy.

James: I will miss you…
Dad:
Dad:
Dad:
Dad: I…ah….....I will miss you too...

That’s all I was able to say the rest of the way to school on this beautiful day.

The Beauty of Life

It’s hard not to stare at a picture of our kids and not wonder what life would be like without them. They are such an amazing gift and they give so much, but we were married almost six years before James came along. When we decided to start trying, I have to admit, I was terrified. Life was so easy, we had it made. Why would we want to “complexify” things? No sleep, big bucks, bigger responsibility and did I mention big bucks… oh yea. We gotta be insane.

Then terrorist number one came along and wow...no sleep, big bucks, big-time responsibility and ah...did I mention big bucks...oh yea. Funny part about it is it didn't matter. Well, it matters but not like I thought it would. Life has a way of turing things upside down sometimes and this one flipped me over like pancakes on a griddle. When hard times come along in life its easier to focus on the anguish of having to climb a hill without actually taking the time to relish what the view will look like from the top. I don't think anyone is ever prepared for what they will face in going down this road and I am guilty as charged...that's how I originally looked at having kids. Intimidated, afraid of the change and comfortable with the status quo. Now one of the most beautiful things that I try and comprehend sometimes is that they would not exist had we not decided to have them. They are a combination of us that no one could ever duplicate. Two instances in time forever captured in two little souls so beautiful and so precious.

I don’t think I realized that in the beginning. I was scared because most of what I focused on was the risk and not the benefit. One of the things that I cherish most is that I was wrong for being afraid and wrong for worrying. For all of the crazy, foolish and insane things they do, I have to admit that they brighten each and every one of our beautiful days.

Best laid plans run "in the muck"

Having firmly established today as a rainy, lazy, couch potato event, the kids decided to line up by the door shortly thereafter and ask to go out and get extremely dirty. I firmly stood up for principles and said...SURE! So much for lazy, rainy and what was a clean day!

Lazy, Rainy, Day

It's raining outside today. I think its funny sometimes how we kinda fall into this lazy, just want to sit on my butt all day, mood when its raining outside. I feels refreshing to have a decent reason to just sit, grab a blanket, put on your favorite flick (at this juncture in our life anything Disney will suffice) and let the good times roll. Can't mow the lawn because it stopped growing after the frost last week. Don't want to go outside cause we will get all wet. I just think we will sit and veg out. Welcome to our beautiful day.

Ok...So I was lazy this week!

As you can tell my posting diligence waned this week. This does not mean that I had nothing but boring and uneventful days. We actually had a lot of fun. Mom has been working really hard trying to get year end complete and Grandma came down and helped keep us sane.

Fall is always an interesting time of year for many reasons. One thing that perplexes me a little is that we always seem to have an up tick in mole activity this time of year. I have little (sometimes a little bigger than little) piles of dirt scattered across our yard. This basically drives me a nuts, but not enough to do anything about it so I just sit and stew a little and post my angst away out on the blog. I have had a trap in my garage for the entire summer that I have yet to stick in the ground. So I decided to share a friend of mine with you today...who has gotten a little under my skin (and my grass) for that matter. Ugly little bugger...

Never Color Outside of the Lines!

I attended the WBMA (Wisconsin Biotech) conference last week and had the opportunity to listen to a wonderful speaker - Sir Ken Robinson. As many of you know, I have aspirations of being Matt Foley (in a van down by the river) someday and so I jump at the opportunity to listen to a good speaker and catch a little inspiration of my own every now and then. Sir Ken was an articulate gent, but what captured my attention most was not his style or anything related to how he delivered his material. He shared a story from his upcoming book "Epiphany" which I would like to share with you.

There was this little girl that was having all kinds of problems in school. She had problems focusing, she had problems sitting still and she had problems listening. All of her teachers told her mother she was a bad student, that she had a learning disability and that she need to go see a specialist to do something about it. Her mother was concerned about her daughter's well being so she took their advice and they went to see a child psychologist about her daughters "problems."

The psychologist was a little non-traditional and proceeded to ask the little girl to sit still in the same room while he questioned her mother for ~1/2 hour about the problems her daughter was having in school. After the questioning was through, the psychologist asked the mother to go outside with him to discuss her daughter's issues further. Before he left the room the man thanked the little girl for being so patient and that her part of the process was over. As they walked out of the room, he turned on a radio and shut the door. The mother, expecting the worst, turned to the psychologist and waited for a barrage of scientific explanations related to her daughter's condition. The psychologist just sat there for a moment and instructed the mother to look through the window just out of sight so that her daughter could not see them looking in on her.

After a few moments, the little girl got up and started gracefully walking around the room. She moved from one end of the room to another, skipping, spinning and turning eventually making her way up on one of the tables and began dancing...her way of alleviating all the pent up anxiety she accumulated over the past 30 minutes. After watching all of this, the psychologist turned to the mother and said there is nothing wrong with your little girl. She is talented, beautiful and like any other child wants and needs to learn. The only difference is that she needs to move, she doesn't need to be confined and for that matter I would enroll her in a dance class or two. You need to help her learn to explore her talents in a way all the other teachers in her life have not been able to do so.

Her mother wisely heeded the advice and enrolled her daughter in a dance school. Little Gillian Lynne excelled from the get go and went onto found one most famous dance companies in the world. Her most famous accolades include choreographing both Phantom of the Opera and Cats, but she almost never became a dancer had it not been for the advice of a man who took the time and a unique approach to help her mother understand she needed to find her own way.

Stories like this hit too close to home for me. Sometimes I feel like that teacher who struggles to make the kids color inside the lines when it really doesn't matter. They need to and should find their own way and its up to us to help them explore how. Lord knows I never, ever colored outside of the lines. Neat, perfect and uniform...that's the way I wanted to do things...and I have a bridge I would like to sell you in Brooklyn if you are so interested.

And now you know the rest of the story - GOOD DAY!

My Secret

This has been troubling me for awhile, but I felt the time has come to let you in on one of my most closely held secrets. I must admit that I am part of a conspiracy to protect the secret lineage of a former Chinese leader...Chiang Kai-shek. I cannot hide anymore and the evidence above is too overwhelming to deny the truth any longer.

Being Chiang's secret love child has not always been easy. My angst for militant behavior, power and change has driven me to shoot cows with my bb gun in my back yard, to haphazardly do donuts in every car that I have owned and to move sporadically at the drop of a hat to chase a new and exciting battle (job). It's not always been easy and I feel much better now having let you in on my little secret.

Where does the time go?

I woke up this morning and started about my daily routine preparing for the day. This normally involves numerous mundane tasks like showering, dressing and most importantly coffee. This morning I was unusually efficient and somehow managed to complete these things giving me a few precious moments to just sit in the dark by myself and think.

Where does all of the time go? Before we had kids, we had hours, even days to really do nothing. We worked our tails off, but we still had oodles of time to ourselves. Back then, Kelly always had tax season to deal with and I remember spending most of one winter’s weekends working on a plant stand that I gave to mom as a gift. That project was a heck of a lot of fun and every time I go up to Antigo I take a few seconds to look at it and admire my amateur attempt at woodworking.

I don’t want to give you the wrong impression here; I would not trade being a Dad for anything in the world. I cannot imagine life without those two beautiful faces in my world. Like that plant stand, I sit back like any honest proud parent and admire “our two projects” at times and it just blows me away. I guess I am pondering one of the things that I have been guilty of over time: looking forward or back in time without really appreciating the moment at hand. Tim McGraw sings a song called “Live Like You Were Dying” and I know for myself that is one thing that I need to a better job of doing. Time, like money is something I think most people tend to appreciate the most when they don’t have any left.

I wonder where the summer went and I wonder how much fun it will be in Green Bay this weekend. I have not posted anything in a couple days, but I realize that in writing this it helps me think about life today and appreciate what I am writing on this page right now, at this moment. I am enjoying this beautiful day even though it is cloudy, overcast and a little cold. I hope you are as well.

Friday Night Lights

I took a walk at lunch today to enjoy one of the most beautiful days I can remember in a while. It was cool (mid 50’s) and there was a slow breeze that just kept the air moving enough to drag along the new fresh smells of fall. I wandered down the sidewalks thinking of fall and recalling memories of why I enjoy this time of year more than any other.

Growing up in Antigo, fall meant one thing…football. I know I attended many games before this, but the first fall football season that I remember was in 1982. Antigo won the state championship that year and I remember mentally “suiting up” as a kid preparing for each weeks game. We traipsed all over Wisconsin that year chasing a dream and at the end of fall that year, we all felt like heroes.

At the time for me football was life, but in hindsight it was the secondary if not tertiary experience. What we were really doing was finding a way to cherish one of Wisconsin’s most precious gifts. We found a way to play life’s game and enjoy it like few other moments in time. Yea, I remember some of the touchdowns and jumping up in the stands, but I also remember some of the most picturesque drives one can imagine through the beautiful fall color of Northern Wisconsin. I remember walking out on the field after the game and smelling the fresh grass preparing to retire for the year. And most of all I remember sharing what is one of my most cherish childhood memories with my Dad and my brother. We won that year. The amazing thing is that the celebration goes on again and again every time I experience a beautiful Wisconsin fall day.